Sunday, February 28, 2016

Movie Review: The Martian

Hard Science Fiction

By Chuck Smythe

Once upon a time, there was Hard Science Fiction. It has deep roots, but the modern, genre paperback tradition started with the Greatest Generation. They came back from the war with heads full of The Bomb, computers, and rockets, and were an eager market for pulp science fiction. Quite a bit of this, of course, was formula adventure fiction tarted up with spaceships. Some of the most interesting examples, though, had scientifically literate authors, who were interested in exploring the possibilities, for better or worse, of all this new technology. This was Hard Science Fiction, and the best of it insisted on getting the science right.The Martian (2015, directed by Ridley Scott) is possibly the best film I’ve ever seen in the Hard genre. It is based on a novel by Andy Weir, a techie who moved from software to writing. I understand he talked to NASA engineers a lot about this book. As well as I understand the current thinking at NASA: If and when we mount an expedition to Mars, this is roughly how it will be done. The spacecraft, the Habitat (base), and the truck in The Martian all look as if they had been cut and pasted from a NASA mission proposal. Mars itself was acted by the Wadi Rum in Jordan, not a bad choice.

All this would probably have been excuse enough to make the film. Seeing what a possible future history would look like is a worthwhile exercise, and a lot of fun. Inspiring, too....I’ve heard of at least one science teacher who challenged his students to actually grow food with stuff they might find in a spaceship. However, “I’ve got to science the shit out of this” is a wince-worthy line.
The down side of Hard SF is that it tends to be all about ideas, and the people are essentially props. The literati have long sneered at science fiction for this. To them I say “Jorge Luis Borges.” However, it doesn’t have to be that way. I can think of many SF examples whose humans are even more interesting than their technology. How does this film do in that department? Better than most of its competitors. It certainly isn’t Lear, but our hero (Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon) at last shows mortal terror as he launches from Mars with a desperately inadequate ship. The captain of the departed ship (Melissa Lewis, played by Jessica Chastain) is haunted by leaving him behind, even though it’s clear she had no choice. A NASA bureaucrat (Mitch Henderson, played by Sean Bean) disobeyed orders in order to give the crew the choice of a rescue, and his pain as he was consequently fired from a career he obviously loved is made real.
Again, none of this is Literature in the usual sense, but at least the characters are far from props. Oddly, the relatively stoic behavior of the astronauts is entirely realistic. I’ve known a number of them. They are professionals, able keep their cool under the shadow of death, planning not panicking. The actors actually portrayed this sort of character very well – even if Our Hero did cuss like a mule skinner on official radio.
So how hard is the science? Well, there are a few things. The MacGuffin is a windstorm that threatens to topple the ship, requiring a hasty departure. Watching this, I thought, Isn’t wind pressure proportional to air density? Yep. Surface pressure on Mars is about 5% that of Earth at sea level. Windstorms Mars certainly has, but the force of the wind wouldn’t inconvenience you. Oh, well, the screenplay needed a rationale for the hasty departure from Mars.
They walk around as if they were on Earth. Mars’s gravity is a little over one third of Earth’s, so they’d actually bound around like Apollo astronauts. Obviously, showing this would have been extravagantly difficult and expensive. And, of course, there are at least two problems they finessed entirely. Long-term weightlessness is bad for your health. We’re talking here about most of a year each way. And such a long voyage is bound to be hit by more than one Solar storm – with enough radiation to kill you. It isn’t clear how a spaceship could carry enough radiation shielding to take care of this – too heavy. (This isn’t a problem in low Earth orbit because the Earth’s magnetic field turns the radiation away.) As far as I know, NASA doesn’t know how it’s going to deal with these two either.
Speaking of radiation, you might question astronaut Watney’s use of the discarded radioisotope thermoelectric generator that he digs out and repurposes as a heater for the interior of his truck. Isn’t its plutonium going to harm him? I don’t think so. The danger with plutonium is breathing it. It’s a chemical poison, and the particles can lodge in your body, irradiating it. However, RTG generators are already a long-tested technology. They’ve been used in most spacecraft to the outer planets (where sunlight is too weak for power.) They’re designed to stand a rocket crash without leaking plutonium, so getting cozy with one is probably reasonably safe.
As one of the Children of Heinlein, I thank the film makers.

4 comments:

I was going to watch the Academy Awards show this evening, to see first-hand whether The Martian won any Oscars, but the pre-show banter about such things as, What advice do you have for first-time nominees? was so silly, I couldn't take any more. I'm going to do a Sudoku and then go to bed.

Steve Glossin, co-founder of this blog. Three novels: Prophecy of the Medallion, Watch List, and Death Mask, edited by Morris Dean and originally published as Kindle & Nook books, but unfortunately no longer available. Nor are their revised versions, published as Kindle books under the pen name R Randall, any longer available: The Imam of the Cave, Trip Wire, and Gamal’s Assassin. The world’s loss.

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor in Chief, Moristotle, aka Morris Dean. Writer and editor since mother's teat, in old age manages a weblog beat, sometimes opines in rhyming lines, and chooses words to set in measured feet. [favorite website]

Contributing Editors

Geoffrey Dean. Now living in Salt Lake City, after being based for over two decades in Bulgaria, where he was a founding music faculty member at the American University in Bulgaria and the cellist of the Sofia Quartet and Ardenza Trio.

James Knudsen. The Loneliest Liberal. Despite voting for Barack Obama twice, being a registered Democrat, actor, educator, yada yada yada—there are things that put him on the fringe. He's a US Marine (current Commandant General Amos sent out a memo: Can't say “former”) and a gun-owner. He likes to watch NASCAR but hates the hillbilly patriotism. “So what's a fella to do?”

Jonathan Price. A retired English professor, has taught courses in American literature and contemporary film both in California and abroad, including Portugal, Thailand, and Italy, is currently working on a memoir of his two Fulbright fellowships abroad.

Columnists

Bob Boldt. Filmmaker, writer, artist, and retired commercial film producer with an abiding sense of the inherent dissonance between appearance and reality, Bob pursues community organizing, poetry, publication, and still & video production in Jefferson, Missouri. He joined the staff as a contributing editor toward the end of 2014, and continued as a columnist in January 2017. A gallery of his visual work can be viewed at ello.co/deboldt. [Portrait painted by Jane B. Mudd]

James T. Carney. Student of history who likes to visit its monuments and museums and report on them with a critical eye and some humor. Attorney-at-law and long-time resident of Pittsburgh.

Christa Dean. A chamber and orchestral cellist, recitalist, conductor, and educator, she has performed extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Minnesota.

Rolf Dumke. An economic historian whose life-long, wide-ranging interests in the arts and sciences were inspired by Yale College courses, which provided him a smorgasbord of great ideas. Has taught in Canadian and German universities, and today lives in Bavaria, near the Alps.

Kyle Garza. An avid proponent of bridging the perceived gap or schism between science and religion, he teaches English at a private Christian school in Southern California, is pursuing an MA degree in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University, and is a Science-Fiction fan, especially of authors Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.

Penelope Griffiths. A resident of Cardiff, Wales, “once met never forgotten, sometimes not for the right reason but always for the open and honest way she conducts herself. You may not like what she does or says, but you will remember it and you will always come back for more.”

Valeria Idakieva. When not at work teaching English to Bulgarians and Bulgarian to students from other nationalities, or managing the International Chamber Music Academy in Kyustendil, Bulgaria, Valeria Idakieva [валерия идакиева] likes to go hiking or running in the mountains. And she reads into the night as long as she can remember herself.

Eric Meub. A practicing architect in California for thirty years, with an emphasis on healthcare design. He also writes and reads traditional verse: a wrestling match of form and feeling. A good contest shows us grips, holds, and moments of surrender we’ve never known before.

Victor L. (Vic) Midyett & Shirley Deane/Midyett. He’s a storyteller and man of all trades, and she’s an artist, therapist, and organizational management consultant. They are settled now in the port city of Fremantle, Western Australia, after spending three years among what Aussies call the “Gray Nomads,” roaming the Australian countryside.

Roger Owens. An old hippie surfer boy from Brevard County, Florida, a businessman who studied psychology and literature and loves to travel, fish, and read. His hobbies include politics and writing.

William Silveira. Former dirt farm boy with Portuguese roots in Tulare County and retired trial court judge from the same place.

Chuck Smythe. Retired astronomer and mountaineering instructor, spending his declining years studying music and skiing like a maniac.

Bettina Sperry. Business owner and intellectual farmer, educator, and lover of roses and all things botanical. Raises beef cattle, thoroughbred horses, and Shar Pei near the George Washington National Forest in the eastern mountains of West Virginia. The grass is always greener at Franklin Hill.

Past Members of the Staff

Paul Clark, aka motomynd. A contributing editor with Tom Lowe & Ken Marks when Moristotle became Moristotle & Co. Raised a meat-and-potatoes, hunting-and-fishing, NRA conservative, Paul “gave up on new-age fake conservatism after the con job that was Ronald Reagan” and “a bunch of extremist political hacks took over the NRA.” Breaking ties with the past, he became a vegan, an activist for animal rights, social causes, and environmental issues. The “motomynd” moniker derives from motorcycling, and is also the name of his website [click his photo to visit motomynd.com].

Tom Lowe (1945-2014). A contributing editor with Paul Clark & Ken Marks when Moristotle became Moristotle & Co. A visual artist and photographer, Tom lived in the San Francisco Bay Area until his death on October 24, 2014. He had increasingly found himself quoting Shakespeare’s Puck: “What fools these mortals be!”